This Sunday is Patriot Sunday here at Salem. It’s one of my favorite services, I think because I don’t get many opportunities to sing patriotic songs these days. I should remember to do that… I also enjoy hearing sermons that remind me that the people who founded this country were looking for the freedom to worship our God. They were regular folks like us, who lived in a very tumultuous time in history. Rather than cower before the powerful who had moved away from God, they left everything behind (land, homes, family, livelihood) to search out a place where they could put God first and not be thrown in jail for it. These people inspire me!

I am also reminded of all of those who have fought for our nation over its almost 250-year existence. Patriots all, they valued freedom over EVERYTHING and put their lives on the line – first, so that we could be independent – a unified nation, under the leadership of men who put God first in their own lives. And second, so that we could stay independent – protected from those who would do us harm. These men and women deserve our undying gratitude and our support all year ‘round. I need to remember to do that too…

Finally, I love this Sunday because it brings back really good memories of Patriot Sundays in the past – the potlucks, the red/white/blue t-shirts with the church name on the back, the kids running around playing with goodie bags and toys, the flags and the pageantry, and always the line drawn to connect the search for freedom by those initial patriots and our search for spiritual freedom that can only be found in Jesus. He is the Author of real freedom – and as such, He is the only One who can give it to us. His kind of freedom is real and permanent and can be felt even in places where other freedoms do not exist. His Spirit is not restricted by laws or their enforcers, is not inhibited by bars or prisons, is not threatened by dictators or autocrats or the armies of terrorists that exist in the world today. I am so grateful to be an American, but I am even more grateful to God for making me a Christian. 

I hope to see you all at church on Sunday!

Careen